Subject: | |
From: | |
Reply To: | |
Date: | Fri, 31 Dec 2004 19:30:29 -0500 |
Content-Type: | text/plain |
Parts/Attachments: |
|
|
> What, exactly, is a subfossil?
Old but not fully fossil. There's no exact cutoff, but if it still smells bad it's too fresh to be subfossil. One common technical definition for a fossil is anything over 10,000 years old, i.e., older than the Holocene. Typically subfossil is used to refer to shells that don't look fresh. Thus, a shell found in a river bank and a shell in an old museum collection might have died at the same time, but the museum one has hopefully been better curated and would not be considered a subfossil.
Dr. David Campbell
Old Seashells
University of Alabama
Biodiversity & Systematics
Dept. Biological Sciences
Box 870345
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0345 USA
[log in to unmask]
That is Uncle Joe, taken in the masonic regalia of a Grand Exalted Periwinkle of the Mystic Order of Whelks-P.G. Wodehouse, Romance at Droitgate Spa
----------------------------------------------------------------------
[log in to unmask] - a forum for informal discussions on molluscs
To leave this list, click on the following web link:
http://listserv.uga.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=conch-l&A=1
Type your email address and name in the appropriate box and
click leave the list.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|